Green Room

Ignore the Haters… ACT OF VALOR is a great piece of film making.

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to walk the red carpet with my business partner Stephen Baldwin on the U.S.S. Intrepid to view ACT OF VALOR with about 120 VIPS from NYC. Notable progressives were in attendance–Montel Williams, Ellis Henican, and others. In short, the evening was special, not just because the film is a breathtaking action movie, the likes of which comes along once in a generation, but because the story has more heart than any movie made about our military in the last twenty years.

The filmmaker’s Q & A following the screening was also very telling. Their primary motivation for making this apolitical movie about the life of Navy Seals was primarily to pay honor and tribute to the sacrifice these extraordinary individuals make in order for all the rest of us to walk around free.

The liberals in attendance gave the film the same standing ovation I did, because they were drawn into an intense story line that did not choose partisan sides.

That’s not to say that liberals who haven’t seen the film aren’t making a partisan issue of it.

A more heinous, asinine, and dishonest expression of this is this piece from Gawker. The author Hamilton Nolan, speaking completely out of ignorance on the matter, seems to imply that the filmmakers attempted to make this piece of “propaganda” to cash in on the press of the Osama bin Ladin take down. If he had actually spoken to the filmmakers–as I did–he would’ve learned that this cinematic masterpiece was in the works four years prior to the OBL raid.

Nolan’s ignorant trash-talking about Relativity Media also demonstrates the lack of knowledge (does anyone who blogs at Gawker actually ever have to know anything) because Relativity came in on the marketing and distribution to help push the film to a somewhat normal level of theaters for opening weekend. Their cash infusion also allowed this tiny independent passion project to get some needed television ad space.

It is difficult to put into words how important this film is. It is even harder to put into words how GOOD this film is.

As the CEO of a media company with several film projects in the works, let me just tell you–art this good usually doesn’t get the recognition it deserves if it’s patriotic. But there is absolutely no reason why this film shouldn’t be up for multiple recognitions from the academy, if all they were measuring was the quality of the craft.

The fact that it won’t will only be enhanced if we turn it into the biggest movie of the weekend!

Blowback

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There is a movie review site I used to read quite frequently, before I got tired of the nakedly, blatantly partisan liberal point of view that would randomly spew from the reviewers and commenters over nothing.

Anyway, they had a review up for this a week or two back that was very positive. My movie watching is limited at the moment, but I’m sure I’ll get around to it.

I just saw Act of Valor this afternoon. I would recommend everyone see this movie. Fantastic action movie. 4 Starts for sure. It made me so Proud to be an American. I am a veteran myself but of course never saw this kind of action. All I can say, is WOW. You almost want to stand up and cheer. It is so good to know we have real life heroes working for us everyday to keep us free from harm. Kudos to these independent film producers for making a movie that is Pro Military instead of that weird stuff coming out of Hollywood. Support our troops in all ways. God Bless America.

Nolan’s ignorant trash-talking about Relativity Media also demonstrates the lack of knowledge (does anyone who blogs at Gawker actually ever have to know anything)

To be fair, many of the commenters (and even a good number of editors) from Gawker and Jezebel’s sister sites would agree with that sentiment. Hell, even Gawker’s own commenters occasionally call them out for stuff like this. A good number of us commenters who may or may not have multiple starred accounts valid on all Gawker network sites tend to go to Gawker and Jezebel to troll their rather despicable community. We have to keep it sane, though, because those two sites (and Gizmodo, increasingly) will ban or remove comments simply for disagreeing. Talk about liberal tolerance.

To be fair, not all negative reviews of this movie are politically-motivated. Most reviews have praised the technical aspects of the movie, and nearly all of them at least make mention of poor acting and story. This isn’t the fault of the SEALs; they’re not actors, after all. But it may just be that when the goal is to make a good movie, it’s best to use actors.

@sobincorporated
I was never a Navy SEAL, but I can tell you this; I spent many a day with them at various Coronado Island “functions” and you will never, ever get a hollyweird mainlander to accurately, honestly and genuinely portray one of these patriots – ever! Especially if they are “actual actors” – nuff said!

So it’s not at all possible that these guys just can’t act? I’m not taking anything away from them as heroes or human beings, but actors usually make better movies than the real thing. Harrison Ford isn’t a doctor, but I’m glad he was the star of “The Fugitive”.

Maybe true American Patriots are TIRED of “actors” and want real “American, true to life, heroes”. That’s not too far fetched, is it?

What say you about that dynamic?

ontheright on February 24, 2012 at 6:51 PM

So in your mind, wanting to watch actors in my movies rather than guys who act as well as you’d expect Navy SEALs to act means I’m not an Amurrican Patriot? Not everyone fits into your patriot/Code Pink dichotomy.

I just want the Navy SEALs to be SEALs, not actors…it’s a great angle, filming a movie about Navy SEALs using real SEALs, it’s getting a lot of attention, and I love that it shows our military in a good light for once…and while using real SEALs I’m sure helps with the authenticity with respect to certain things (such as the way they handle weapons, etc.), actors could have been used, especially with retired military advisors on the set. From what I read, none of these SEALs can deploy anymore as active duty SEALs due to appearing in this film. And while their names have apparently not been released, people will recognize them…what happened to keeping identities private? I wonder at all this publicity. There was a time when they were barely mentioned, but a lot of folks who are angry with the president for talking up the SEALs seem to find nothing wrong with this film…I’m just conflicted.

I’ll be seeing it tomorrow, the first movie I’ve paid to see in years. I will do my part to support this and I urge all of you to do so too. Some day Hollywood’s desire to make money may overcome their desire to be invited to the right parties….

@sobincoporated
I believe you would be hard pressed to find any of my posts where I got personal – with you – or anyone else, for that matter. You may want to re-calibrate. Just a bit.

ontheright on February 24, 2012 at 7:30 PM

So I will show you what I see, and what I suspect sobincoporated saw.

@ sobincorporated

One last thing –

Maybe true American Patriots are TIRED of “actors” and want real “American, true to life, heroes”. That’s not too far fetched, is it?

What say you about that dynamic?

ontheright on February 24, 2012 at 6:51 PM

So in your mind, wanting to watch actors in my movies rather than guys who act as well as you’d expect Navy SEALs to act means I’m not an Amurrican Patriot? Not everyone fits into your patriot/Code Pink dichotomy.

sobincorporated on February 24, 2012 at 7:07 PM

So what you said could be interpreted as saying if you don’t agree with me, or if you are not tired of actors, then you are not a true american patriot. And when he pointed that out to you, you denied it without explaining the intent of your origninal statement. In his pointing it out to you he took the argument you were making and drew it to its absurd conclusion of a dual world that is only black and white, patriots and code pink, with no grey. Because again, it sure can sound like you called him NOT a patriot, which is kind of a mean thing to say about someone you don’t know.

Now as it happens, without having seen the film yet, I think it is neat that they used SEALs instead of actors, but I can admit that some might see that matter of opinion differently than me and still be patriots. Regardless of who starred in the film I think we can all agree that films that honnor our military are better than those we might typicaly expect out of Hollywood which leaning libral as it does tends to tear down all things traditionaly American.

So in your mind, wanting to watch actors in my movies rather than guys who act as well as you’d expect Navy SEALs to act means I’m not an Amurrican Patriot? Not everyone fits into your patriot/Code Pink dichotomy.

Just got back from the theater and this movie is all kinds of amazing. Was the acting a little wooden in places? Sure, but in a strange way that almost helps. Watching people talk like real people and react like real people would react (instead of tossing off perfectly scripted quips after blowing away the bad guys) makes the film seem a lot more real and draws you into the story more than it would have if the main characters had been actors. The action scenes were amazing, of course.

If the trailer is any indication of this films quality, I’d say the producers,directors, actors and all associated with the film did themselves proud.

So in your mind, wanting to watch actors in my movies rather than guys who act as well as you’d expect Navy SEALs to act means I’m not an Amurrican Patriot? Not everyone fits into your patriot/Code Pink dichotomy.

sobincorporated on February 24, 2012 at 7:07 P

LOL.

I thought this was hilarious until I realized that you’re just a sad caricature.

Actors cannot portray military life, unless they have been in. It’s just that simple. I worked in Hangar 1 at NAS Miramar while Top Gun was being made. Granted, that wasn’t much of a war movie, and while those of us who lived on carrier flight decks enjoyed the few moments where they showed a tiny sliver of what that’s like, Tom Cruise and Val Kilmar made most of us cringe with the horrendous portrayal of Naval Aviators. That said, actors attempting to be Seals gets you Charlie Sheen at worst, Willem Defoe at best, and it is still a waste of effort.

I will watch this movie, I will rent this movie, and I will buy this movie as soon as I am able to do each. It, and the people responsible for it, will get every bit of consumer support I can offer. Nothing connected with any other Baldwin brother will ever get any piece of that. He’s got to have a fairly weighty pair to stand firm in opposition to those siblings.

Actors can portray military…sure, they’ll never be perfect, but actors portraying cops and fire fighters won’t be perfect, either. We are never going to have a unit of real military men and women whose sole purpose is to act in movies…the best we can hope for is to get realistic casting, and that can be done…Jeremy Renner was good in The Hurt Locker, for instance. Many of the actors in Black Hawk Down gave excellent performances in that movie. I will see AoV when it comes out on DVD (I hate going to the theater to see movies), and I am grateful our military is portrayed postitively, but I don’t think this should start a trend…actors act, and military members do the REAL work.

I went to see the movie; loved it and will go see it again. I was a little concerned that active military personnel were engaged in a commercial endeavor regardless of it’s political point of view, but I have to say that my fears were allayed.

This is a movie about soldiers, by soldiers, and for soldiers. It’s good to see real people unapologetically doing what they actually do in the defense of our nation. War is never pretty and the movie showed this and showed the true spirit of the Warrior ethos.

Saw this yesterday. It is very intense, and moving. Brings in their family life and what they are prepared to give up by going on the next down range just so people can watch Jersey Shore, collect unemployment and vote. Glad these guys are out there, thanks.